Why does
anyone run? To get fit? To travel faster? To get from A to B as rapidly
as possible?

No. You
run to get away from things. Horrible things. Vampires, muggers, your
parents. Your past.

But what
has running got to do with beards? Very little, I'm afraid. I am a
little lost.

In the
film 'The Fugitive' Harrison Ford starts the film with a lovely
bushy beard. It doesn't last for long. Once he is being chased by
Tommy Lee Jones he shaves it off to be less recognisable to
the authorities. So the beard is nothing more than a gimmicky plot
device. That seems a bit harsh on the beard.

Tom
Hanks does have a beard AND runs a lot in Forrest Gump. But the
beard is symbolic of the zeitgeist of the 70s and the running is just
some clumsy non-metaphor.

Beards
have not featured heavily in films since the mid 1980s, when Chuck
Norris was at his peak. Back then, everyone had a beard, but soon
beards faded into designer stubble, and despite a brief goatee revival
(villains only) in the early 90s, beards have hardly featured at all
in major Hollywood films.

Brad
Pitt has a big beard in Legends of the Fall, but that is a period
film, so it hardly seems to count. I'm talking about films set in
the present day.

There
are plenty of top Hollywood actors who would benefit from beards.
Beards lend a man gravitas. Bruce Willis could get an Oscar
nomination if he grew a beard. Clean-shaven he won't even get a Golden
Globe nomination for a performance in a musical or comedy.

Likewise,
actors who normally have beards can grab public attention by appearing
clean-shaven. Imagine Brian Blessed shaving off his beard and
playing an timid, elderly solicitor. The British Academy would keel
over in shock.

None
of this really has much to do with the little man running at the top
of the page. It just fills up space. I am sorry.